The survey indicates that more teens are seeing imagery, thanks to social media, that entices them to drink. The teens say they are encouraged to party after seeing photos and videos of classmates drinking, high, or passed out.

This is a reason why parents need to be as involved in their child’s social media, as their child is. Kids do not fear posting comments about alcohol or marijuana on facebook or twitter.

It’s everywhere.

And parents who think this problem is pervasive in the public school system better open their eyes.

The survey indicates that private schools also have a massive drug problem, and it is rising dramatically.

In 2011, 36% of private school students said their school was “drug-infected.”

Fast forward a year, and that figure is now 54%, a 50-percent gain year to year.

Teen drug use appears to be a very obvious case of monkey see, monkey do.

Teens are more likely to use drugs when their parents either use, or are laid back regarding drugs, tobacco, and alcohol.

Teens who say they’ve been left alone overnight – almost 30% of those surveyed – are about twice as likely to have used alcohol or marijuana and almost three times more likely to have tried tobacco than teens who’ve never been left alone at night.

If there ever was a time for parents to get more involved with their teens, now is that time.

Parents need to be aware of what their children are doing.

They also have access to tools like the Teensavers Home Drug Test Kit that can help detect this drug use.

Catching it early, can make the difference between teens who experiment, and teens who become addicts.

For more information on the Teensavers Home Drug Test Kit, and where you can find one for your family, CLICK HERE.

Investigators say that this teen had been running the operation since he was 15 years old and he had several high school students working for him. This adds to the severity of the crime, as he was not only ruining his own life, but several other teens’ lives as well. The spokesperson also said that this boy looked amazingly clean cut and that you’d never suspect he was running a major drug operation.

Read the journal for all of the details.

A Cincinnati teen faces drug dealing charges, after authorities broke up what they say was a $20,000 a month operation.

Detectives found $6,000 in cash at the boys home and they served search warrants at three different locations and discovered what they say was $3,000,000 in marijuana plants.

There’s no word on how long this operation was active, but detectives did point out that the 17-year-old made it a point not to sell on campus.

If what the police say is true, who was this teen dealing to?

Were students buying this much marijuana off-campus?

More details will surely come out on this case, as several others were arrested. But authorities say the 17-year-old high school senior was the mastermind behind the operation.

These kinds of stories serve as a reminder to parents that teens may not only experiment with marijuana, but become criminally involved with it. Possession is only a misdemeanor in most states, but cultivating for sale and selling to minor charges can add up to serious felonies.

Without getting into one of those “gateway” drug conversations, we can say that when a teen is around a drinking or drugged environment, the risk factor of crime or injury is increased.

Talk to your teens about the dangers of alcohol and drugs. This teen may end up facing charges that will keep him behind bars for numerous years. He will miss college and the life that exists right after high school. While others are getting an education, learning a trade, or experiencing life for the first time as adults, this boy, if convicted, will be sitting in a cell.

When it comes to the health of your children, your family wants a home drug test kit you can trust.

After all, our kids mean everything to us.

The Teensavers is not only 99% accurate, but it is one of only four home drug test kits approved by the FDA for over-the-counter sales.

Why is this important?

-Ease of Use: The FDA only approves tests for OTC when those products give parents proper step by step instructions on how to administer the tests properly. Cheap tests found online or in dollar stores are messy and can be confusing to use, and confusing to read.

-Zero Tolerance Cutoff Levels: Cheap tests have drug levels that vary widely. Testing for drugs is difficult when the detection levels are so high, you’d have to be practically overdosing to register. For example, THC levels set by the government for testing are at 2,000 nanograms. Manufacturers are allowed a +/- 50% range, which means you could be testing your child for THC and the test you use is actually set at 3,000 nanograms. The Teensavers cutoff levels are the most strict. The cutoff level for THC in the Teensavers Home Drug Test Kit is 50 nanograms.

Accuracy: In addition to having very tolerant cutoff levels, imported home drug test kits can often give you a wide range of cutoff levels. Within the same batch, you might find THC levels ranging from cup to cup from 1,000 to 3,000. Each Teensavers Home Drug Test kit is 50 nanograms. There is no spectrum of tests. It’s correct science and the Teensavers Home Drug Test Kit is Made in America!

-The Next Step Towards Finding a Solution: Cheap tests don’t provide you with the next step if your son or daughter’s drug test shows a presumptive positive. The Teensavers Home Drug Test Kit includes a free lab confirmation kit. You know which opiates your teen test positive for. You know how high the nanogram count is for each specific drug. And it will help you understand the next step for your child.

Beware of products that you find for cheap on eBay from sellers who can’t answer your questions. Watch out for online sites with a large inventory of different tests and products. You often find the same products selling cheap drug tests, also sell masking agents for people to hide their drug use. Don’t dive in for the cheap test at your neighborhood discount chain or dollar store. Those products are often close to expiration and typically cheap imported products.

Buying and using a home drug test kit can be a difficult decision for your family.

No family wants to see a preliminary positive result, but if they do get one, they know they have a chance of correcting the problem before it is too late. This is key!

What good is getting a false negative? You don’t want to think that your teen is drug-free when they are using semi-regularly. That’s the important of buying a reliable and accurate product like the Teensavers Home Drug Test Kit.

Here are the cutoff levels and codes for drugs tested in a Teensavers 12-panel Home Drug Test Kit.

An apparent ecstasy related death of a jiu jitsu instructor in England has led to two more deaths.

But neither of the subsequent deaths a result of ecstasy use.

Roy Allison Sr. apparently decided he needed the man that he claimed was the drug dealer that sold his son Roy Jr. a fatal dose of ecstasy. “I believe it is right for me to rid this scum from the community,” he wrote in a letter to Peterborough Telegraph.

Detectives believe Allison Sr. stabbed Duncan Bell to death, then hung himself at the cemetery where his son was recently buried. Allison planned and carried out the murder, and documented the plan in a letter to the newspaper, police, and 13 other entities before killing himself.

Investigators still are not 100% sure that the younger Allison died of a drug overdose, and if he did, they haven’t identified the source of that drug.

But one relative tells the Daily Mail that Allison was an alcoholic and evil man.

Authorities say that the elder Allison never went to them with his belief or information that Bell may have supplied his son with ecstasy.

The drug that has been portrayed as being a bused by the lowest common denominator or by the wealthy rock legends and movie stars is now being abused by your average teenager and adult in your hometown.

National data from SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) shows that the number of teens dying from heroin abuse has skyrocketed. In 1999, 198 people between the ages of 15 and 24 died of a heroin overdose, compared to 510 deaths in 2009. Statistics for 2010 should be expected later this year.

The treatment centers and rehabs are full of heroin addicts. From 4,414 teens in 1999 to more than 21,000 (about 80 percent) in 2009.

As NBC pointed out, the data shows that 90% of teen heroin addicts are white.

NBC spoke with a former Chicago Police Captain, John Roberts, who lost his son to heroin.

Citing an “imminent threat to public safety,” the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) made illegal the possession and sale of three of the chemicals commonly used to make bath salts — the synthetic stimulants mephedrone, MDPV, and methylone. The ban, issued in October 2011, is effective for at least a year. During that time, the agency will decide whether a permanent ban is warranted.

Of course, we know that the creators of these products continually change the chemical contents to get around the ban.

We also know that marking them “not intended for human consumption” is exactly what a drug seeker is looking for. It absolves the creators from responsibility, and it alerts drug users to their toxicity.

So since the attacks, every body has jumped online to read what bath salts are. Good, right? Well originally, it probably was a good thing, especially when it comes to parents who’ve never heard of these products. They are popular, and they are dangerous. And kids love them.

But now, it appears we’ve gone from an awareness period, to a period of curiosity. Are kids looking these things up because they want to feel those effects? We’ve seen new agencies from Fox News to Forbes cover the bath salts issue in the week since the face-eating attack.

But are clean teens or teens who smoke pot, now considering trying these hallucinogenic products?

The latest pieces of video making the rounds is a former addict who was featured on CNN. He not only described what using the products did to him, but CNN had footage of the guy mid-high, when he had nearly overdosed.

Bath salts are a serious problem. And the government has been unable to eliminate them from store shelves at gas stations and head shops.

Now that we’ve made nearly everyone in America aware of what they are, we need to come together to eliminate them, before kids start trying them. They need to be eliminated, and not just a few hundred packs at a time.

Despite the massive attempts to clamp down on the manufacturing and sales of synthetic marijuana, the product continue to thrive, and many Americans, including an explosion of teens are using it regularly.

This is an increase from 2010, where 41 substances hit the market, and 2009 where 24 new variations surfaced.

“This represents the largest number of substances ever reported in a single year, up from 41 substances reported in 2010 and 24 reported in 2009,” said the agency.

The largest group – 23 – were synthetic laboratory-designed substances that imitate the effects of cannabis, such as products marketed as “Spice”, and a further eight that imitate the effects of amphetamine and ecstasy, such as mephedrone.

What we are also seeing are new designer medicines which are created to mimic the effects of popular medications by slightly altering their chemical compounds.

The report also says that more than 700 websites are selling these products.

These products are sold at traditional American brick and mortar locations like gas stations, convenience stores, and tobacco shops. The products are described as being in many forms, including plant food, incense, and other common household products like bath salts.

There is a warning on the labels “not meant for human consumption” but that warning can often be the indicator to kids that this is the junk that will get them high.

Parents need to be vigilant for this. Current home drug testing approved by the FDA for over the counter use does not detect these products. Any other tests that have been approved by the FDA for sale, are forensic only products. Beware of anyone trying to sell you a synthetic marijuana test at this point, as testing has concluded that these are highly unreliable.

A compelling and controversial story out of Mlive.com this morning. It is raising the eyebrows of some parents and the ACLU. The plan involves paying high schoolers $50 to rat out their classmates who are using drugs.

What do you think? Is this a good plan? Will this lead to numerous false accusations? Will this put “tattle-tale” teens in a position to be retaliated against?

One one hand, it seems like this would hold teens accountable to their peers. But it just may not be the right answer for the school.

Parents should be taking more responsibility and talking to their teens about the dangers of drugs. This conversation should be open and honest, and should be frequent between parents and kids.

Parents should also consider having a home drug test kit on hand at home, just in case that first warning sign appears. Marijuana is readily accessible to children and teens now get their hands on pills, high powered opiates, from the family medicine cabinet. Don’t fuel your teens habit with unattended pills at home.

It’s amazing the range of parenting we see, when it comes to handling teen drug use. Many parents refuse to discuss the issue of drugs at all with their kids. Their message is too simple, “Don’t do drugs!”

But kids need to know what damage drugs can do, and how drugs drastically change people’s lives for the worse.

One mom was tired of her 14-year-old’s drug use. He had been to court several times for selling drugs. The court continually sentences him to probation and orders him to pay money. Well that’s not good enough for Dynesha Lax.

She’s making her son stand on a corner in their neighborhood wearing a sign that says, “I steal. I lie. I sell drugs. I don’t follow the law.”

And her response to her critics, “”What else more can I do? They put him on probation and when they did probation they were quick to talk about the $300 you have to pay in fees, but nobody’s trying to help me fix my son,” said Lax.”

The message here is simple. For those who think that home drug testing is a crazy idea, you may want to think twice. Kids are experimenting in larger numbers and at a younger age.